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A Trip Through a Fairy Tale

During the programme, visitors can wander through the castle’s mysterious rooms, get acquainted with the secrets of the universe, play in a puppet show, make themselves a beeswax candle, look for treasures hidden in the castle and bold enough visiting the torture chamber, the chamber of death, and the hell.

Making Candles

Program Workshops

Chamber of Science

Medieval skills and sorcery are the everyday life of an alchemist.

The basic skills of an alchemist are writing with a goose quill and making real wax candles. Of more complicated skills, the alchemist teaches how to make gold, light a fire with the help of magic words, and other fascinating skills.

Puppet Theatre

Take the puppets and perform. The king, the princess, the young lad, giants and other famous characters await theatre enthusiasts to bring them to life. Let’s create a short play on the spot and perform it.

Getting Familiar with Firearms

Early modern firearms – cannons, muskets, and pistols!

In the workshop, we’ll introduce how early modern firearms were used in the Middle Ages, and formation techniques used with the musket. We’ll also teach how to load weapons and use them safely. Everybody can partake in making gunpowder.

Program exhibitions

History Room

The history room gives the visitors an opportunity to hear about the castle’s history – about which countries have governed it and about who have built and wrecked it.

The historical approach to the castle is supported by an exhibition of archaeological finds, which include artefacts connected to the castle – weapons, tableware, tools, fragments of buildings, etc. Appropriate security and storage conditions have been met for the exhibited items. Visitors can become acquainted to the broader background of the castle’s development by studying the card boxes with scrollable cards. The first box contains information on the national formation of Europe in the 13th to 18th century, and the second box gives an overview of the national development of the Estonian region in the 13th to 15th century and its passing from hand to hand, as the result of the Livonian War, in the 16th and 17th century. Visitors can try on knights’ helmets, mercenaries’ morions, and plate armour details and take pictures with a night of the order and a mercenary (landsknecht).

Chamber of Torture, Hell, and Chamber of Death

The three great fears medieval people had were the fear of torture, death, and hell.

Medieval torture devices are exhibited in the torture chamber. In the centre of the room, there stands a torture rack constructed according to medieval drawings. The torture chamber can only be visited with a guide, for it is necessary for getting the proper experience. In addition to torture devices, the executioner’s profession and status in the Middle Ages and the Catholic Church’s attitudes toward heretics and witches are introduced as well.

The central theme in the chamber of death is death – one the great fears of the medieval people –, which was followed by either Heaven or Hell. To illustrate this subject, a fragment of the Dance of Death has been exhibited with the help of dummies who represent the emperor and the empress, the mayor and the bishop. The dummies stand alternately with skeletons. The Dance of Death motif, which was a major theme for several medieval artist, is introduced to the visitors, and medieval attitudes towards death are explained as well. In order to add excitement, there is a coffin from which, under the guide’s direction, a skeleton rises amidst the visitors.

Hell was the third greatest medieval fear. The room is built as a maze, and while finding one’s way through, one can learn about medieval people’s fancies about the horrors and tortures in Hell. Hell was reconstructed in 2015 and is now much larger and scarier than before.

Cannons, Muskets, and Revolvers

Firearms that can be shot…

Today, Rakvere castle has six battle-ready cannons that can be shot at any time. “Tont” (“Ghost”) is a copy of a 1470 Burgundian kartouwe, “Ööbik” (“Nightingale”), on the other hand, is a copy of a field cannon cast according to the Swedish army blueprints from the end of the 17th century. Both of these cannons are used on festive occasions or in more important battles. Daily signals are shot from a copy of a small 17th century signal cannon whose original is situated in the castle’s history room. If need be, two small mortars may be used as well. All cannons use black gun powder. Those who wish, may order a cannon shot from the castle’s cannon team. The castle has around ten matchlock and flintlock muskets all of which are battleworthy and capable of shooting quite a distance when loaded with black gun powder. Same applies to the 16th century type revolvers, which the castle warriors wear tucked in their belts if necessary.

Sword Exhibition

Sword Exhibition

Swords from our collection, starting with the unique Hallstatt Sword and ending with early modern sword types, are exhibited on the 1st floor of the convent building. As it is a ‘hands-on’ exhibition, visitors may pick up the swords and try them out.

History of Swords

Bronze Swords

The first swords were made of bronze in the Mediterranean region probably about 5,000 years ago. The sword was a weapon of noblemen and rulers, a symbol of strength and power. Bronze was an alloy consisting of nine parts copper and one part tin. The oldest Estonian bronze sword (1) is about 2,700 years old and it was made in the modern day Austria during the period of Hallstatt culture.

Iron Swords

The oldest iron artefacts also come from the Mediterranean region and are approximately 4,500 years old. These were rare and only available for the wealthiest. Smelting of iron and making of iron swords started about 3,000 years ago during the Hallstatt culture.

Swords in the Classical Period

In classical antiquity, the majority of an army’s power consisted of professional infantry that was armed with long spears – swords were secondary weapons only used in close combat. The bronze swords of Egyptians were curved (sickle-shaped), but the Greeks’ swords and the Romans’ gladiuses (2) were short, straight, and double-edged. As the Roman army was an army of numbers, the legionaires’ swords were mass-produced in national workshops by slaves and masters. The officers’ swords, however, were especially commissioned and were thus of better quality.

Swords in the Viking Era

Vikings were warriors in ancient Scandinavia and they terrorised the whole Europe during the period of 8th to 11th century. Vikings kept swords in special honour, and thus, many swords were given names: Odin’s Flame, Dragon of Wounds, Battle-Snake, Torch of the Blood, Raven-Shirt’s Snake, Sea-King’s Fire, etc. Many swords had blades made of the so-called Damascus steel. In these cases, the blades were made by beating together thin steel and iron rods. As a result, different shades of iron and steel fibres formed complicated interwoven patterns on the sword’s surface. The cutting edges of swords were, however, made of the purest steel possible and were welded on the patterned cores.

Swords in the Middle Ages

The medieval knight was first and foremost dedicated to the service of the Warrior God. This was also symbolised by his sword – the handle represented the Holy Cross, the straight blade represented honesty and straightforwardness, and the two edges represented the fight against injustice (the injustice of the strong against the weak and the injustice of the rich against the poor). During knighting, a priest gave the young nobleman a sword saying: “Accept this sword in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and use it in protection of Our Lord’s Church and against the enemies of Christianity.”

Service in the Lord’s army was also indicated by the writings on the knights’ sword blades: HOMO DEI (the Lord’s man (warrior)), IN NOMINE DOMINI AMEN (in the name of the Lord, amen), CHRISTUS IMPERAT (Christ reigns).

The most important innovation of the medieval sword was the balancing pommel that functioned as a counterbalance, so that the thin steel blade seemed feather-light, but still enabled to deal crushing blows.

Swords in the Modern Period

In the beginning of the 15th century, firearms took the place of cold weapons. Knights were replaced by the new professional soldier class: low-born hired footmen – landsknechtid – whose weapons were adorned with verses illustrating the new world view: Kein besser dinnk in dieser wellt den schonnen frauenn und bar gellt (There is nothing better in this world than pretty women and money). Their swords held various magical symbols – planet and zodiac signs and the lucky number 1414. Swords were often enchanted and their hilts frequently contained auspicious amulets, a vipers tongue and a bats heart tied together with red silken thread, or a piece of wood from a wheel on which some unfortunate sinner had been executed according to a judge’s sentence.

Starting from the 16th century, sword blades became thin and narrow and crossbars developed into a “basket” covering the whole hand. The sword became light and elegant – a nobleman’s everyday accessory. The new fighting style – fencing – gave rise to the rapier whose blade was an elastic and sharp steal rod without edges.

The infantry wore swords until the mid-19th century; the cavalry used the curved sabre and the straight broadsword; and the cavalry had the boarding sabre. In the 20th century, the sword became the officers’ parade weapon.